Why Reindeers Are Better Than People
by disneylove89
Summary: Anna's life is finally coming together: she and Elsa are best friends again and Kristoff is becoming a large part of Anna's world. But Kristoff never seems comfortable staying in Arendelle for long and, while on a sled ride Kristoff planned for them, Anna finally learns why Kristoff prefers reindeer to people.


_Just a short little story of why Kristoff prefers the company of reindeer(s) to people. I might still tweak it a bit, but here's what I came up with! Enjoy! _

* * *

"I'll be back later tonight, Elsa," Anna called as she bounded towards the staircase.

"Woah, hold on. Where are you going?" Elsa, in her beautiful, shimmering dress, demanded as she grabbed hold of Anna's arm, halting her escape.

"Kristoff's taking me for a ride in his sled," Anna replied. "You know, to watch the sky."

"Oh, of course. The _sky_," Elsa replied but sounded rather skeptical. "Don't be out too late though. It's supposed to snow tonight."

"Elsa, if you make it snow while I'm out. . ."Anna started.

"You know, sometimes it snows just because that's how nature works," Elsa replied teasingly. "I promise that if it does snow tonight I will have had nothing to do with it," she raised a hand to signify a solemn promise and Anna giggled.

"All right, all right, I believe you. I'll see you later!" Anna said and hugged her sister before sliding down the banister towards the front door. It was _wonderful_ to have her sister back; after Elsa learned how to control her powers and no longer had to isolate herself, Anna and Elsa spent as much time as they could together. It was like when they were kids, best friends as well as sisters. But now Anna also had Kristoff and she couldn't imagine her life being any better.

"Kristoff!" she called as she burst out of the open gates, the sight of him leaning against the side of his sleigh idly plucking the strings of his lute turning up the corners of her mouth in a wide smile. He turned when she called, his face lighting up when he caught sight of her. It nearly took her breath away to realize how much Kristoff loved her, how much joy he found in her company.

"There you are!" he said as she came closer and drew her into a warm hug. "You ready to go?"

"Yup. Where are we going, anyway?"

"Oh, I've got somewhere in mind," he said with a lopsided smile and climbed into the sled.

"Hi, Sven!" Anna remembered to greet the adorable, loyal reindeer hitched to the sled, scratching under his chin and making his back leg wiggle in pleasure. She hopped into the sled and snuggled up beside Kristoff, seeking the warmth his body provided in the chilly winds. Winter had come for real now, leaving the odd summer behind and enveloping Arendelle under a blanket of non-magical snow and ice.

As they left the kingdom behind and traveled into the mountains that surrounded it, she could feel Kristoff begin to relax, though Anna had not realized until that moment that he had been holding himself tense as if ready for an attack.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, feeling her eyebrows knit together in her concern.

"Oh, yeah. I just like being out here better. Away from people, you know," he replied nonchalantly, smiling easily.

"Well, _I'm_ people," she reminded him.

"Yeah, but you're different. You're nice and honest and funny."

"And adorable, don't forget that," Anna teased, feeling herself blush at the compliments Kristoff was giving her.

"Well, that goes without saying," he agreed with a chuckle.

"But really, what is it about them that you don't like?" Anna asked, hoping she might finally find out why he was raised by trolls, why Sven had been his one and only friend before Anna had come along. Kristoff sighed and gave her a look that said 'do I really have to tell you this?' and Anna raised her eyebrows to say 'yes, you have to tell me. If you can, that is.'

"Well. . . okay. . .my mom died when I was really little. And I didn't really know her, because I was barely even talking, but dad took it really hard," he said quickly and Anna immediately felt her heart going out to him. She knew what it was like to lose a parent, but to lose a mother so young was unimaginable. "He didn't really talk much after that. We never played anymore, not that he ignored me, but I guess life just wasn't all that great to him anymore. He left the team he had harvested ice with, going off on his own.

"When I was old enough, he would show me how to harvest ice from the lakes in the mountains, and when we worked together I could see some of his sadness go away. Those were the good times, when he would forget that we didn't have mom and just showed me how to control the ice. I loved it immediately, because even though ice is unpredictable, I enjoyed having the power to control and shape it like my father did. It was something I could handle when everything else was so crazy."

"Everything else?" Anna pressed gently.

"The team my dad had left tried to keep him from selling ice in Arendelle. Dad said they thought he had betrayed them, that he had gone behind their backs to push them out of the market. I don't know if that's true or not, but they did everything they could to keep him from selling ice, and that was wrong no matter which way you look at it. And when dad _could_ get ice into town, the buyers knew what was going on and refused to give my dad a fair price. They were crooks, all of them!" Kristoff exclaimed, his hands tensing on the reins. Anna said nothing, only placed one of her mittened hands on his own and tried to simply _be_ there for him, to send comfort to him through that simple touch. After a moment, she felt him relax and he continued on with his story.

"Dad started to sell ice on the other side of the mountains, because that's the only place he could get business. I would go with him to help harvest ice, as much as a six year old kid could, anyway, but he would travel on his own to sell it. Once, when we were on our way to the lake, Dad and I heard the noises of an animal in trouble, a reindeer. By the time we found the source of the noises, there was nothing there but some wolf and reindeer tracks, and a baby reindeer shivering under a bush nearby. Dad let me keep him, and we started to raise him together. He even brought back carrots for him from across the mountains. Isn't that right, Sven?"

The reindeer pulling their sled looked back with a delighted smile that told Anna that Sven remembered Kristoff's father and his carrots with great affection. But the way Kristoff spoke made Anna think that this story did not end well.

"What happened to your father?" she asked, though she was fairly sure of the answer.

"He died. Somewhere out in the mountains on his way to the town on the other side," Kristoff said simply. "I was too little to be on my own like that, so I went back to the men who had betrayed my dad, who made it so he could not sell ice in the city, who were the reason he had to climb the mountains that would kill him. They had no issue with me; it wasn't my fault that my father had offended these men. So they let me work with them and learn from them. But the minute I could, I set out by myself to make my own way, just me and Sven. And of course the trolls. Not everyone in Arendelle would give me a fair price for my ice, but that was because they're all cheats. Thanks to you and your sister, they have to give me a good price now," he finished with a bitter sort of smile.

"Kristoff," Anna breathed. "I had no idea!"

"It's all right," he tried to assure her. "It all worked out in the end," he added with a grin that held more happiness than bitterness in it now. Anna tried to relax, but kept going over Kristoff's story in her mind. He had such a horrible time at the hands of people, it was no wonder he did not like to be in the city for long, that he trusted so few of them. Strangely, it made her feel that much closer to him, that she might be counted among the few Kristoff put his faith in.

"Here we are!" he said a moment later and pulled Sven to a halt at the top of a snow covered cliff, overlooking the wild forests beyond.

"What is this place?" Anna asked. They had traveled up and down the mountains on their way to find Elsa that past summer, but Anna had never seen this place before.

"Just wait," he said, motioning to the last light of the setting sun. It only took a few minutes for darkness to fall, bringing out the stars above them one by one. Anna gasped in pleasure, but Kristoff held up a finger to signify she should wait another minute. Giddy with what else could be coming, Anna perched herself on the edge of the sled's seat and waited.

Just as Anna began to think that nothing was going to happen, the skies lit up in a magnificence she had never seen before. The sky had awoken in a torrent of colors, shifting and swelling through the dark blanket of stars. Anna had seen the lights several times of course, but having the world below her as they sat on the cliff, so close to the sky and so high above the world, Anna felt as though she was experiencing it for the first time.

"What do you think?" she heard Kristoff ask.

"It's amazing!" she exclaimed. "How did you find this place?"

"Just a perk of growing up here," he replied and slung an arm on the back of the sled. Anna obligingly moved back in the seat to allow his arm to slide across her shoulders, his warmth encompassing her as they watched the lights in the sky dance.

"I'm sorry about how those people treated you and your father," Anna said after a little while.

"It's all right. I've learned that not _everyone_ is as bad as all that," he said, squeezing her slightly closer to him. She tilted her face up so that he might kiss her, a silent request he easily complied to. It occurred to Anna that while she longed to dive into the world and meet as many people as possible, it took everything Kristoff had just to learn to trust again. There was a lot Anna still didn't know about the world, about people, but she felt sure that it was not as bad as Kristoff thought. But perhaps between her faith in people and his more grounded views, they would be able to tackle anything that might come their way.


End file.
